The Ring of the Nibelung

S04E03

Act III

In the overwhelming conclusion of the cycle, the all-consuming love of Siegfried and Brünnhilde is broken in bitter betrayal; the machinations of Hagen, son of Alberich, seal Siegfried’s doom; and Brünnhilde’s self-sacrifice precipitates the end of the old world order and the beginning of a new era. The musical and dramatic power of Götterdämmerung is awe-inspiring – sweeping us from Siegfried’s Rhine Journey to his Funeral March, and, finally, to Brünnhilde’s immolation and the work’s titanic orchestral climax.